Wright-Phillips lifts Red Bulls past FC Dallas

FRISCO, Texas >> Bradley Wright-Phillips scored in the 71st minute to help the New York Red Bulls beat FC Dallas 1-0 on Sunday.

New York extended its unbeaten streak to four games to improve to 3-2-5, and FC Dallas dropped to 5-3-1.

Thierry Henry assisted on the goal with a through ball from the top of the penalty box to Wright-Phillips, who fired a shot into center of the net from 6 yards. Wright-Phillips scored his sixth goal of the season and his fifth in the last three games.

“It’s one of those things when you are scoring you get the luck of the green,” Wright-Phillips said. “I’m just trying to get in the right spot and focus and hit my target.”

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The Red Bulls played most of the game with a one-man advantage after Dallas’ Je-Vaughn Watson was given a red card in the 10th minute for a hard foul on New York’s Tim Cahill. Watson kicked Cahill in the lower stomach.

“It was a karate kick, I see those once or twice a year,” Cahill said.

After the game in the locker room Cahill showed the red scratches on his stomach from the foul.

The two teams combined for four yellow cards on top of the red card.

“It was a combination of things,” New York’s Dax McCarty said. “It was a stone-cold red card, extremely chippy play in the first half. In the second half it seemed the ref swallowed his whistle. I thought Dallas was very physical and did a lot of stuff off the ball that you don’t necessarily want to see.”

The game was the 100th career game for Henry, who registered his third assist of the season on the goal.

“I’m not thinking of the 100th game, today we did enough to win,” Henry said. “ They (Dallas) played better than us with only 10 men, it’s difficult because Dallas did not deserve to lose.”

Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles made a diving save to his right side to stop Blas Perez’s penalty attempt in the 58th minute. FC Dallas was awarded the penalty shot after Cahill was called for a foul on Danny Garcia.

Less than two minutes later, Robles made a two-handed leaping stop to prevent a goal by Garcia. Garcia made his MLS debut in the game. Robles finished with three saves and FC Dallas goalkeeper Raul Fernandez also finished with three saves.

“Very heartbroken and very disappointed,” Dallas coach Oscar Pareja said. “On a day that we couldn’t put a lot of things together, we end up losing against New York, a team that took advantage of their one opportunity in the second half. Disappointed to play 80 minutes with 10 men, it’s hard.”

Dallas played the game without Zach Loyd and Michel because of yellow card accumulation suspensions. Loyd and Michel had both started the last five games for FC Dallas.